A short and sweet guide to energy work with nuggets for beginners and pros alike. Must read!

Anatomy
A GROUNDED GUIDE TO ENERGY WORK & ENERGY HEALING

Energy

PETE MICHAUD

 2011 Pete Michaud All Rights Reserved worldwide under the Berne Convention. May not be copied or distributed without prior written permission by the publisher. If you have this book or an electronic document and didnt pay for it, then the author didnt get a fair share. Please consider paying for your copy by purchasing it at EnergyWorkGuide.com. Thank you!

to Steph, for opening my eye

Table of Contents
Introduction1 Who Am I? What is an Energy Body? Three Subtle Bodies How the Bodies Interact Chakras and Their Functions 1 4 5 7 11

Frequency11 Energy and Physiology Chakras in this Chapter The Root Chakra The Sacral Chakra The Solar Plexus Chakra The Heart Chakra The Throat Chakra The Third Eye Chakra The Crown Chakra Other Chakras  How the Chakras Interact The Dynamic Pair 14 14 16 20 24 28 32 36 40 43 47 47

Fractal Reality Energy Flow Lower Chakras Higher Chakras The Complete System Problems with Chakras

48 49 49 51 52 53

Blocks55 Color63 Brightness65 Spinning66 Maintaining Clean Energy Eat Healthy Food and Exercise Regularly Great Back Posture 69 69 70

Meditation70 Breathing71 Yoga74 Chakra Spinning Final Thoughts Further Reading 74 77 80

Introduction
Who Am I?
I am a healer. Ive had a passion for healing minds and spirits since I was old enough to share my fruit snacks with the new girl. I was the friend you came to for advice when you were bullied or had a crush. When I wasnt in trouble for talking too much, I was coaching the socially inept kid on how to be friends. That passion led me down the path Im on now, teaching and healing full time. I am unusual among my kind because I am very analytical. I studied business in school, and I built a career in software development before really taking the leap to follow my path. I like math, science, and statistics. Facts and data. If theres anyone who doesnt go in for this energy work shit, its people like me. One of the first essays I wrote on my blog PeterMichaud.com was about how the concept of supernatural doesnt make sense. I was bound to be a secular humanist. An atheist of the highest order. Except when I was seven years old, my face was crushed under the tire of an Isuzu Trooper. And when I came through my near death experience, there was no going back. As the years wore on, I just knew the classmates who had a crushes on each other. I could see past the angry and the happy alike, all hiding their sadness. I saw the joy and despair of everyone around me as plain as their faces. I knew exactly what had happened to them to lead them there.
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Despite a world telling me I was at best superstitious, at worst idiotic or mentally ill, I knew there was more out there than current science and normal perception could explain. And since Im an analytical scientist at heart, my first order of business was to test and verify. To create a model of everything I have personally observed, so I could fit what I saw into a framework that made sense in the larger world. Ive been building and refining that model for two decades now. I will share some of what I have discovered and personally observed in this book. Nothing shared here is a regurgitation of New Age books or even esoteric mysticism. It turns out that according to my observations, much of that old knowledge is at least partially correct, so a lot of it will match what you may read elsewhere. I dont pretend to know everything, and what I share here is a best guess, just like any science. I observe my world, then I develop a model that fits my observations, and test it until I prove it or break it. Still, this is the model thats worked for me, and worked for the clients I see in my practice. Whether its entirely correct or complete isnt the issue: this stuff works. Ive seen it work, Ive felt it work. Ive seen people transform before my eyes from terrified and ungrounded, to bold and decisive. From sick to healthy. From hyper-sexual to dazzlingly creative. Ive awakened peoples intuitions, and helped others stem the tide of voices pounding their mind. The results speak for themselves.

What is an Energy Body?

Iron filings spontaneously arrange themselves to align with whatever magnetic field they come in contact with. When the magnetic field moves or changes, so do the filings, to realign with the energy thats acting on them. When you remove the magnet the filings might stay in place temporarily. But without the structure of that magnetic field holding it together, the organization will quickly disintegrate as other forces push and pull each piece of iron into chaos. So it is with your energy body, the energetic field that defines the structure of your physical body. When you move or change that field, your body changes with it. When the field is removed your physical body temporarily stays organized, but quickly falls into chaos. Your physical body decomposes when the energy body leaves.

The difference between a magnet and your energy body is that instead of just one field arranging a simple pile of metal, your energy body is orders of magnitude more complex and beautiful, arranging layer after layer of different emotional and physical systems within you. This book will provide you with an overview of how that energy body works and what affect it has on your mental and physical aspects.

Three Subtle Bodies

If you research the term subtle body you will find that there are many different models spread across every spiritual tradition. Each model uses more or fewer specific bodies that are each responsible for manifesting different aspects of your experience as a conscious being. The Physical, Mental, and Energy body model is the one I use. I find it simple, robust, and true to my experience. The Physical Body is the actual tissue. The arteries, sinew, bone, and gristle that make up your physical form. This is the iron shavings in the magnetic field. The Mental Body may just be a specialized organ in the physical, but I give it special status because of the strong role it plays. Its purpose is to project meaning and substance into the physical aspect of reality. The illusion is that the world
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acts upon us. The reality is that mental body is projecting the physical world, as if its translating between the energy body and the physical. The Energy Body is like the magnetic field holding the metal shavings in place. Its organization and nature determines what we see and feel, and indeed, what we are. I wasnt always comfortable with the concept of the energy body because it seemed too much like a metaphorical fairy tale that someone made up after the fact. I thought it was too convenient, for example, that each energy center, or chakra, would be associated with some broad category of life experiences, and that the categorization should coincide with anatomically related structures. For example, the chakra in the throat being a center that affects self-expression and communication. What I discovered is that chakras are real, and they correspond roughly in color and placement to the traditional focal points of energy from various mystical traditions. After studying the chakras I realized that I had it reversed: it wasnt fairy tale convenient that the throat chakra happens to govern communication. Its inevitable, by definition! Remember, the iron shavings that make up our physical bodies are arranged according to the patterns of your energy. So the chakra governing communication wasnt placed after-the-fact where the throat is; the throat developed as it did, in the place it did, and is used the way it is, as a result of that energetic center being present there.

How the Bodies Interact

The Physical, Mental, and Energy bodies affect each other in a sort of cycle or network. If the physical body breaks down, the mental body becomes susceptible to break down as well. The mental body might then project pain, fear, and doubt into the energy body, which becomes tangled, and stuck. The energy issues will manifest in further breakdown of the physical and mental, in a vicious cycle. Similarly, well-functioning bodies will spiral up, each supporting each other to become stronger. A strong and healthy body will always catalyze more healthy thought patterns, which serve to energize and expand the energy body.

photo by Trey Ratcliff

Although this book focuses on the energy body primarily, and the mental body to a lesser extent, I want to emphasize here that the physical cannot be ignored. Your body is your temple. Honor it. Take care of it. It is wholly uncontroversial that regular exercise and a healthy diet make people feel happier and help them think more clearly. It also strengthens the pathways that your energy body uses to interact with your physical body. You cant have clean, strong energy without a clean, strong body. Its no coincidence that spiritually powerful people, who are content with existing in the present moment, tend to also be physically fit.

Note to aspiring healers: its worth mentioning that meat has very heavy energy. Ill explain what that means in more detail later in this book, but for now just understand that healing and intuition require a very light energy, which comes primarily from the Crown chakra. The meat of dead animals by its nature has a stodgier, more grounded sort of energy that disrupts and slows energy flow. That natural tendency toward weight is compounded by the emotional weight of anguish before death. Eating meat products in the western world in particular, is extremely counterproductive for the healing arts. If this is your path, consider transitioning to veganism.

The Nervous System

Your mental aspect is embodied in the nervous system, acting as a direct link between the physical and energetic bodies. As I explored these energy centers, I began to wonder if they are physically manifested in an obvious way. It turns out that they are. Each chakra corresponds to a major nervous plexus, which is like the crossroads of many nerves. We have a vast number of minor plexi, but major ones are placed in the same locations the chakras happen to be. Im thinking thats no coincidence!

Cerebral Cortex Pineal Gland Cervical Plexus Cardiac Plexus Celiac Plexus Superior Hypogastric Plexus Inferior Hypogastric Plexus

Chakras and Their Functions

Your energy body is made of a network of countless energy centers and pathways that connect them. The centers are commonly called Chakras, which derives from the Sanskrit word for wheel. The pathways are commonly called Nadis or Meridians.

Frequency
Energy has frequency, which is a measure of how fast the energy is vibrating. Various healers have different dominant sensory modes; that means some will describe energy in terms of sound or feeling. My dominant mode is visual, so I see chakras in terms of color. The reality is that chakras just vibrate and human beings are free to interpret that vibration in whatever way they feel comfortable.
Frequency, Hz 0 105 1010 1015 1020

on bs Su ic

Wavelength, nm
78 62 59 57 49 45 39 0 2

So un d

o r di da Ra io Ra M ad F R & ve TV twa o or di Sh Ra M

In
7

ys Ra a m am G ys Ra ht X ig tL le io av t ltr gh U Li t le gh ib Li is V red a fr
2 5 0

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When I talk in this chapter about colors, you should understand that what Im really talking about is the speed of vibration. I would see low speed energy as red, and high speed energy as violet. Thats because the color red is the lowest frequency of electromagnetic radiation that we can see, and violet is the highest frequency we can see. You might hear them as a low or high pitched frequency. In physics we learn that mass and energy can be converted freely. When we say that a particle has 2 no mass or nearly no mass like an electron, what we mean is that its fundamentally in constant motion. When we say a massive object has no energy, we mean it is not vibrating at all (which is when an objects temperature is absolute zero).

E = mc

Ill dive more deeply into the subject of mass versus energy in the next chapter, but for now, just know that Physical energy is slower than Source energy. The best way to think about it is that the ultimate incarnation of the physical is a massive and unmoving object. The ultimate incarnation of Source is not an object at all, because all the mass has been converted into pure motion (energy). As a result, the chakras that vibrate more slowly are more rooted in the physical, while the higher chakras reach more toward the source. Both are fundamentally important to the human experience.

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Energy and Physiology

Ive researched the neurological structures that seem to be associated with each chakra, but I am not a physician and this is one area that I cant directly observe. The structures I have listed are those that most closely match the location and function of each chakra. In the sections listing the areas of the body that each chakra governs, I have listed the systems that are innervated by the nerves coming from those large, neurological structures. As in any science, my model may turn out to be wrong. For example, one possibility is that the chakras arent directly related to the nervous plexi at all, but instead are related to the many glands that exist in and around the plexi. It could be more complex than either the plexi or glands alone can explain. Be that as it may, this is the most accurate information I have so far.

Chakras in this Chapter

There are detailed resources available for learning about the complexities of the many energy centers. This book will focus only on the major centers. There are six universally accepted, major chakras; there is a seventh center that is commonly considered a chakra even though it really isnt; there are also between five and 57 more extended chakras said to extend outside your body. Well cover the first seven major chakras: the Root, Sacral, Solar Plexus, Heart, Throat, Third Eye, and Crown.

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Chakra 1:

The Root Chakra

Associated Nervous Structure
Inferior Hypogastric Plexus (also called the Pelvic Plexus)

Governs
Pelvis (Rectum, Urinary Tract), Legs, and Feet

Function
The root chakra expresses your grounding to the physical world. Its the seat of your stable identity as a human being. Its a conduit between the immovable physical aspect of reality up through the higher vibration portions of the energy body. For many people, the Root is strongly related to family ties, because family is often the stabilizing context for a persons life. On a deeper level, the Root is tied to physical survival, the most fundamental connection to the physical world that we as spiritual beings have; connection or life versus disconnection or death.

Issues
Issues in the root will express either as identity level confusion, lack of purpose or drive, or physical instability.
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If the physical energy that is supposed to drive upward from the Root is missing or weak you might be susceptible to strong personalities because you lack an inner sense of identity and purpose. Your energy signature would tend to mirror whatever influences are around you. Deeper, even if you have a strong identity, the Root provides a sense of context for how your physical self is supposed to relate to the rest of the world. Without strong and clear energy from the Root, that context could be confused or missing. That can lead to the sensation of floating aimlessly through life, frustrated by a lack of direction or mission. The on the most basic level, people with a malfunctioning root may have an unstable living situation, or unstable life. You may be crashing on a friends couch, or the bank may be on the verge of foreclosing. Your life may actually be in danger, as in chronic disease, or dangerous working conditions.

Color
Brown. Most sources will list this as Red, but I almost never see anyones Root as red, and almost always see it as brown or at least a muddy sort of red. True to the premise of this book, Im writing what I have personally observed. The color I see is consistently inconsistent with other peoples accounts.

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Shape
A more or less flat, spinning disk. A normal root will be roughly as big as a persons sitting area. Less common are the outsized roots associated with exceptional identities and missions. The largest Ive ever seen was about 100 feet in any direction, spinning slowly but inexorably.

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Chakra 2:

The Sacral Chakra

Associated Nervous Structure
Superior Hypogastric Plexus

Governs
Bladder, Urethra, Uterus, Vagina, Vulva, Perineum, Prostate, Penis, Testes, Rectum, and Descending Colon

Function
The Sacral chakra, sometimes called the sex chakra, is the seat of passion and our creative drive. Our desire to create is fundamental to our experience as humans: the same creative process that gave us life allows and expects that we in turn will create. The drive expresses in many forms including art, engineering, and yes, sex. Part of that creative impulse is the fire and desire that drives it forward. That fire can express as love and eloquence, or as rage and chaos.

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Issues
An unhealthy Sacral chakra can express as apathy or listlessness. If the Root is strong, but the Sacral is blocked, you may understand your place and direction in this life, but find yourself unable to motivate yourself to fully embrace that direction. You may have a depressed or nonexistent sex drive. In some cases an issue can express as an extreme sex drive or preoccupation with sex. Lack of libido is normally a block between the Root and the Sacral, in which the Roots visceral, physical energy isnt reaching the Sacral. Another clue is if you have no sex drive, but an overactive need for comfort, familiarity, and stability. That indicates that the physical energy is overpowering the Root, instead of flowing through it. Extreme libido normally indicates a block between the Sacral and Solar Plexus, leaving that same physical energy to collect in the Sacral. An overpowered Sacral chakra can express as uncontrolled rage, frustration, or moodiness. Control issues can originate with blocked creative energy expressing unproductively as the need to control the people and situations around us.

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Color
Orange

Shape
A tight ball of well-directed fire. It should seem sharp, like a rotating saw blade, with the center pointing upward, and spin quickly around its vertical axis (in the same direction as the root chakra). If it doesnt point upward, for example if its just a ball, that could indicate a flow issue between the Sacral chakra and the one after, the Solar Plexus chakra.

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Chakra 3:

The Solar Plexus Chakra

Associated Nervous Structure
Solar Plexus (also called the Celiac Plexus)

Governs
Upper abdomen, Umbilicus to Rib Cage, Liver, Gallbladder, middle Spine, Spleen, Kidney, Adrenals, Small Intestines, and Stomach

Function
The Solar Plexus is the seat of personal power and authority. It is action-oriented, driving the sum of our thoughts and desires out into the world. It is also the seat of self-esteem, the place where the identity-level stability of the Root, and the passionate creativity of the Sacral is consciously directed into the self you choose and create.

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Issues
A malfunctioning Solar Plexus presents as an inability to take action. A person with a weak Solar Plexus often has the desire to take action (born either in the passion of the Sacral chakra or the compassion of the Heart chakra), but they feel unable either for internal reasons like doubt and fear or because of external blocks like money or authority (internal and external blocks are actually the same thing, projections from the mind). They have trouble taking charge, and indeed if given authority, are unsure what to do with it. Solar Plexus issues are very common in my practice, which I think is because I serve mostly upper and middle class westerners. That population has plenty of time and money to think, to care, to laugh, to have sex. But they are trained to give away their power from an early age to structure and authority, and are also inundated with marketing messages that teach them that they are not good enough or smart enough without money and material possessions. Since most of them dont grant themselves unlimited money, they are eft frustrated.

Color
Yellow

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Shape
Normally a spinning ball with a rough disc, similar to a hurricane. The ball should present as bright, like a small, radiating sun. When fully activated, the chakra pushes a beam of light outward perpendicular to the chest, like a high intensity, yellow spotlight. The spotlight is a phallic projection, metaphorically penetrating your energetic reality and planting your creative seed within it. Whatever you are, on an identity level, is what youll find reflected back at you.

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Chakra 4:

The Heart Chakra

Associated Nervous Structure
Cardiac Plexus

Governs
Heart, Circulatory System, Lungs, Diaphragm, Thymus, Breasts, Esophagus, Shoulders, Arms, Hands

Function
The Heart chakra enables connection and compassion. It gives you access to the ecstatic mental state of unconditional love. It is also a critical component in the mystical intuition that separation is an illusion. The connection to divine love and oneness that the Heart provides normally manifests in the physical and mental world as compassion and sympathy toward others. Combined with the passion of the Sacral chakra, the energy manifests as romantic love.

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Issues
A malfunctioning Heart chakra may present as a sensation of disconnection, or not knowing how you feel, even though you know youre feeling something. It can also disconnect you from other people so that you dont know or dont care what they are feeling. I suspect Antisocial Personality Disorder, most commonly called sociopathy, is originally a malfunction of the Heart chakra. Often a malfunction presents as the ability to connect, but only with pain, as in the desire for an intimate relationship but the inability to trust your partner, or the inability to find a partner at all. Both conditions are simply a state of mind or a state of energy as the case may be: we create our external reality just as powerfully as we create our internal reality. Jealousy is also a symptom of a heart chakra in need of healing. When the Heart is active but blocked it may express its healthy need to connect without the deeper insight that connection is not and cannot possibly be scarce.

Color
Green

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Shape
If the Solar Plexus shape is a planet with a hurricane swirling around it, the Heart chakra is like a gas giant, with no clear boundary between the surface and the atmosphere. It also circulates, but its much more like a sphere as opposed to a disc. A fully activated heart chakra presents as a raging fire coming from the chest area.

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Chakra 5:

The Throat Chakra

Associated Nervous Structure
Cervical Plexus

Governs
Throat, Thyroid, Trachea, Neck Vertebrae, Mouth, Teeth, Gums, Esophagus, Parathyroid, Hypothalamus

Function
The throat chakra governs your ability to know and articulate your truth. It is related to your ability to understand the world and your place in the world, and the courage to express that understanding fully and boldly.

Issues
A malfunction of the throat chakra often presents as a feeling of being stifled, either by external forces like authority or by some internal force such as fear or obligation (both are projections from the mental body). It could also feel like uncertainty about what is real or true and what is not. You may be experiencing a block in the throat if your expressions are frequently misunderstood or not understood at

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all, as in persuading audiences or bosses, or as in explaining how you feel to friends or lovers. Deception of any kind creates blocks in the Throat, but one type of deception that many people forget is self-lies. I cant or Im stupid. Any lies we tell ourselves in our internal dialog create blocks in the throat just like lies directed at others. Honest expression is more difficult than it first appears. When you decide to express yourself honestly, you can immediately see that those expressions change your reality, so that the truth youre expressing actually changes as you express it. The process of restabilizing from a state of partial truth, to a more robust, radical form of honesty will involve rethinking and questioning basic realities about yourself, your life, and the people you spend time around. In addition, when you shift toward total truth, you will realize that the act of obscuring truth is also the act of destroying truth. What that means is that after a lifetime of telling people what you think they want to hear or what you think will be advantageous, youll discover a void where the truth should be. When you stop to ask yourself What do I really think?, the answer will be that you dont think anything. You were just reacting and reshaping yourself to forces around you, instead of discovering and cultivating an authentic self.

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Color
Blue

Shape
Egg shaped or cylindrical, with a rotating atmosphere. Fully activated, it will shine outward from the top and bottom of the cylinder.

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Chakra 6:

The Third Eye Chakra

Associated Nervous Structure
Pineal Gland. A plexus is a kind of nervous crossroads, where several branches of nerves converge. While there is no nerve crossroads around the Pineal gland since its so high in the head, the gland is rich in adrenergic nerves that reach down toward plexi that are inches below it.

Governs
Brain, Neurological System, Eyes, Ears, Nose

Function
The Third Eye chakra connects you with the witness, the timeless, egoless, non-judgmental part of you. Its so called because you become the witness to your own thoughts as they occur, as though they are playing in a movie. Normally when you have a thought, you identify with the thought so closely that you become the thought. When you are angry, you become that anger. You live in your feelings on a visceral level, so there is no gap between these passing, ego-based thoughts and your higher witness. With a fully activated third eye, you will easily slip into the witness, which is the higher and truer perception that every36

thing is one thing. The practical consequence is that you will watch as your own thoughts pass by you, and youll notice the patterns that are obvious and laughable from a birds eye but seem inescapable while youre roiling in the muck. You will also notice from this neutral and timeless vantage that your thoughts are not the only thoughts you will witness. The witness knows that everything is one thing, and can witness the thoughts and feelings of others as well. Being present to witness the thoughts of others is what most people think when they think psychic, so this 6th chakra receives plenty of attention for its spiritual sexiness. The reality is that robust intuition comes from a well-balanced system, particularly from strong flow through your Root, Heart, and Throat, as well as your Third Eye.

Issues
A malfunctioning Third Eye presents a host of serious issues including confusion, unstable emotions, cycles of elation and depression, and inability to focus. An underpowered Third Eye will leave you unable to cope with the roiling emotions within you, and unable to think clearly about your life. On the other hand, an overactive Third Eye can lead to frenzies of manic thought, and overwhelming emotional input from yourself and arbitrary sources. This issue is especially worrisome for a person without a strong Root chakra. Without the grounding influence of the Root to stabilize your experience and identity, a fully active Third Eye can be frightening and disorienting. You will not be able to sort out your own thoughts and feelings from that of those around you. Most people in this situation withdraw, some never again opening their Third Eye. Although Ive never seen it
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personally, Ive heard reports of people having a psychotic break and never recovering as a result of the Third Eye opening too wide while the person was not ready. Many people are tempted by the sexiness of the Third Eye to open it fast and early, but please be careful to make sure to have a reliable guide and make sure you are in a positive and stable state of mind before journeying down that path.

Color
Indigo

Shape
Normally a glowing sphere, with the usual rotating atmosphere. A fully activated third eye will be dilated, facing outward or upward, like a flower in bloom. Thats why theres so much flower imagery surrounding the Third Eye chakra.
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Chakra 7:

The Crown Chakra

Associated Nervous Structure
Cerebral Cortex

Governs
Consciousness, Memory, Attention, Perceptual Awareness, Thought, and Language Processing

Function
Your connection to Source, or Ka energy. That connection provides access to the essential energy of intuition and higher identity, and powers the chakras below it. The Source energy coming from the Crown is often the most effective tool against energy blocks because when those blocks are exposed to Source, they disintegrate or evaporate (see Blocks, in the Problems with Chakras chapter). The first order of business when healing a depressed or blocked energy body is often to clear and dilate the Crown chakra, to allow the source energy to begin to penetrate the blocks you find.

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Issues
A blocked or constricted Crown can lead to serious, systemwide issues because of its role as a power source to the energy body. A malfunction can immediately lead to depression, disconnection from your higher purpose, or inability to witness through the Third Eye chakra. Eventually a blocked Crown will cause dysfunction in every chakra, as the energy that they need fails to flow, and as blocks that are normally cleared naturally by the flow of energy are allowed to remain stagnant in the system. When the Crown is clear, but the Root is blocked, the Source energy from the Crown can dominate the natural frequencies of the other major chakras. The problem is that when chakras are consistently too sourcey, your sense of identity and connection to your life and the world can fade. If youre a hermetic monk that may work for you. If you plan to be a functional member of society, then floating through life without a strong sense of self and purpose will ring hollow and cause frustration.

Color
White or Violet

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Shape
A cord or artery of white light coming from above, into the top of the head. Just below the top surface of the head there is a plume of energy, similar to a comet striking the surface of a planet. The artery itself contracts and dilates depending on how open you are to source energy. Normally the crown is half an inch to an inch wide, but a fully dilated crown can be as wide as your whole head. I dont consider this to be truly a chakra in the same sense as the other six, because this isnt an energy center as much as it is an energy conduit.

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Other Chakras
Many sources report other major chakras. I should note that the seven chakras already discussed are just the primary chakras, and that smaller energy centers exist all around your energy body, and are fed by the larger sources. Aside from those smaller centers, however, between five and 57 extra chakras have been reported with varying degrees of fluffiness. Ill mention them here for the sake of completeness

Chakra 0: The Foot Chakra

In keeping with the traditional numbering scheme of the chakras, the 0th chakra is below the Root, split between the two feet. You may have noticed that among the seven chakras there are three lower chakras, three higher chakras, plus the Crown which is a conduit to Source, or Ka energy.

You may then wonder, as I did, why there isnt a similar conduit chakra for physical, or Ba energy. The answer is that there may be: the foot chakra is said to be exactly that conduit to the Ba. Just like the hands, the feet do in fact have chakras in them. Whether these chakras are the antipode of the Crown, I dont know yet. The concept makes sense, but I havent studied it enough to say with any authority.

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Chakras 8 through 64
Each of these additional chakras varies according to which source you read. The common element is that they represent ever higher connection with the divine, above and beyond our limited, physical bodies. The concept is intuitively satisfying to me since I know there are aspects of our reality that are beyond our sensory perception of space and time, and so it makes sense that if the chakras are the energy field with which our mortal coils align, that there must be a more complete system as well. Many sources report that these chakras exist in and interact with higher dimensions. Whether those aspects are rightly called other dimensions in the sense that theoretical physicists mean, I dont know. Some of these extended systems have the extra chakras aligned in a column above the Crown. Some keep the column, but have one or more chakras extend below the Root or Feet. Others place extra emphasis on the chakras in the hands and feet, and only add one extra above the crown. Some sources report the extra chakras as a part of the system that was always present but that not many people are aware of. Others present the extra chakras as an evolved state, either particular to only advanced humans or as an evolution of our species as a whole. Some sources keep the traditional chakras and simply add to them with new chakras of various colors (including infrared and ultraviolet), while other systems radically change the colors and responsibilities of all the chakras.
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These seem to be a new and understudied topic. Dont get discouraged by all the competing models and explanations. This is science: everyone reports what they have experienced, and we try to develop a theory about how and why the observations work. Just like the plum pudding model of the atom was wrong, so are most (if not all) of these new models of the extended chakra system. As more people develop direct experience with these chakras, if they indeed they exist, the model will become more refined and robust, until there is a general agreement among energy workers and practitioners about them. In the meantime, well just keep exploring at the edges of what is possible and what is known.

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Extended Chakra System

How the Chakras Interact

The Dynamic Pair
Electricity requires positive and negative poles for motion. If you attach a wire to a battery electrons will flow from the positive pole to the negative pole. Positive and negative are terms that were chosen arbitrarily when electricity was first researched. It made intuitive sense in terms of the math being done to call them positive and negative. Unfortunately, the terms are also laden with connotations, as if positive is somehow good, and negative is somehow bad. The reality is that the pioneers in the field just knew that they were dealing with opposite forces, and needed a way to differentiate the two. They chose the terms positive and negative, then assigned them completely at random to the two forces under study. Theres nothing inherently negative about electronegativity. Theres nothing inherently positive about positive about electropositivity. These twin forces are the pair that allows motion, and differentiation. Instead of an unmoving, static state, this pair allows dynamic action. Thats why these forces are called the Dynamic Pair.
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Fractal Reality
A fractal is just a pattern that repeats such that each part is a smaller copy of the whole. The universe is a fractal. Galaxies rotate around supermassive black holes at their centers. The galaxies are made of star systems, in which planets

and debris rotate around a star in the center. Planets have an atmosphere and moons rotating around their surface. Atoms have electron clouds around their nuclei. Everywhere you look, you will find fractals, in which a pattern repeats across superficially unrelated objects. So it is with the dynamic pair, negative and positive. We call it feminine and masculine. Taoists call it Yin and Yang. Egyptians, Ka and Ba. Krishna and Rama. Shiva and Shakti. The Father and the Holy Spirit. The ultimate physical expression of the dynamic pair is the dizzying, black expanse of total surrender, outer space, giving context and space to the explosive, expansive mass of the matter that expands to fill it. That same dynamic energy that defines the structure of our universe expresses in our physical bodies as gender. Just as the gender of human bodies exists on a spectrum between extreme masculinity and extreme femininity, so our energy bodies act as a conduit in which the dynamic pair intermingles, coexists and cocreates. That push and pull of masculine and feminine energy defines a healthy energy body.
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Energy Flow
Since they are short, cute, and neutral Ill use the terms Ka and Ba with the understanding that they are equivalent to any label for the elements of the dynamic pair. Fundamentally, the Ka is the formless context for existence. The Ba invades that formless context, penetrates it with substance and exists within it. Where the Ka and the Ba intermingle, creation occurs. Our physical body is an expression of a special type of intermingling: the dance that allows us to exist, also exists within us. We are a fractal of the divine order: Ka and Ba intermingle giving us the context and substance to exist, and in turn allowing us to bring others into existence through the same dance, in the form of both our children and any other of our creative expressions. In a practical sense, we draw both Ka and Ba energy into our energy bodies through the Crown and Root chakras. When they are drawn in and mingle in a balanced way, that creative energy expresses as inspired life and creation.

Lower Chakras
The symbolism of the Root implies that it draws literally from the ground, or the physical aspect of the universe. The Earth is the largest expression of the Ba that we as humans come into regular contact with, so it makes sense that we should use it as a focus to channel the Ba. The first three chakras, often called the lower chakras, are primarily powered by physical, or Ba energy. The Root
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draws the Ba into the body, and feeds it upward to the Sacral and Solar Plexus chakras. People strongly rooted in Ba energy, who arent balanced by the Ka, are a force to be reckoned with in the physical. One woman who is a client of a friend, packs a massive punch in her lower chakras, and has almost no energy flow in her upper chakras. She is a captain of industry in her country, and makes hundreds of millions of dollars per year. She is also widely thought to be cold, calculating, and bitchy. She herself reports a disconnection from compassion or empathy. Discussions about higher truth are utterly meaningless to her: she only speaks the language of power, physical certainty, and money. Her intuition is entirely blocked. She is driven by her material wealth, but reports bouts of loneliness and depression.

Anima by Andrew Gonzalez

Before I move on, I want to note that this is not the typical profile of a wealthy person. Wealthy people run the gamut from happy and healthy to depressed and dying, just like any other group of people. This woman is wealthy and shes out of balance, but that is difficult to achieve. Wealth is normally achieved by unusually balanced and flowing energy.

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Higher Chakras
The crown reaches up toward the sky, the source of divinity, where heaven traditionally lies. That symbolism makes sense because our closest connection to pure, limitless Ka is the heavensouter space. The crown feeds Ka energy down into the Third Eye, the Throat, and the Heart chakras. People who strongly connected to Ka, without the Ba to counter balance it, are airy fairy. They tend to be sweet, and have open hearts, ready to love animals, the poor, their friends, even strangers. But they constantly struggle to maintain relationships and jobs, and they cant focus on anything over the long term. Their loving potential is squandered, drifting from distraction to distraction throughout their lives. The bitter irony is that because of a strong connection to Source energy, these people often have a pressing sense that they want to profoundly impact the world, and their inability to gain traction in their nitty gritty, day to day reality, leaves them disillusioned and very often hopeless. People like this are very often interested in exploring life beyond normal perception, so many people who read this book are likely to fall into this category. Please use this book as a wake up call to balance your energy. Ka is wonderful and amazing, just like you think, yet Ba is also majestic in its own way, and you need both to truly know yourself and make a serious impact on the world.

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The Complete System

The lower chakras feed upward and the higher chakras feed downward until both energies touch near the middle, either expressing primarily through the Solar Plexus or primarily through the Heart. I used to think a healthy system had to push out into the world through the Solar Plexus, with power and direction, which is aligned more with Ba (see discussion of a fully activated Solar Plexus in the Chakras and their Functions chapter). Now, I think that expression primarily through the Solar Plexus is a masculine trait, whereas expression primarily through the Heart, as love and fire, is a feminine trait. I do think both expressions need to be balanced between personal power and love. In a healthy system, the Ba can reach up into the highest chakras and cycle back down through secondary channels, while the Ka can reach down into the lowest chakras and cycle back up. Every chakra ideally will be sufficiently powered, but not overburdened, and will have a balance of Ka and Ba, which creates the oscillation that manifests as spinning (see the discussion on Spinning in the Problems with Chakras chapter).

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Problems with Chakras

The state of a chakra as you see it is metaphorical. Remember that the physical is an expression and projection from the mental, so your physical experiences can feed back into your perception of mental and energetic reality. Just like dreams convey metaphors that your subconscious mind generates, chakras will behave in ways that make their state intuitively clear, as if the chakras are trying to communicate their state via analogy or metaphor. Each of the common chakra issues I talk about in this chapter are metaphors for an underlying energetic reality, much like what we see with our eyes is a metaphor for the underlying physical reality of the objects we see. There is no way for a book, especially a short book like this one, to comprehensively cover all the symptoms a chakra could present with. You will have to use your judgment to interpret the symptoms you find. For example, I once did a diagnosis on a woman named Caroline in which I first found her Solar Plexus to be functioning without issue. I moved on with my diagnosis, and a few minutes later when I passed back over the Solar Plexus, it was goneher functioning chakra was now radically underpowered. I was confused, so I watched that chakra for a while and saw that it was blinking on and off. Using that metaphor, I was able to correctly diagnose that she was empowered and inspired to change her life, but only in bursts. She would feel like she could conquer the world, begin to do
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just that, then stall in a quagmire of self-doubt and powerlessness. Another diagnosis performed by a friend and fellow healer found that a man well call Mike had chakras that were totally out of alignment. Instead of the column of chakras from the Root to the Crown, she found his chakras jumbled, several of them multiple feet away from his physical body. Mike turned out to be a paranoid schizophrenic. She moved the chakras back into alignment, which relieved his symptoms for a time, but a major structural issue with an energy body cant be solved permanently with only a little prod to the energy body itself. He was relieved, but not permanently cured by her work. You may see chakras that blink like Carolines, or are out of alignment like Mikes, or chakras that wobble, or that have mixed colors. Use your knowledge, judgment, and intuition to figure out what the symptoms mean for the person with the issue. On the pages that follow is a list of the most common types of chakra issues that present in virtually every human being. Some people will have well-functioning energy bodies with one or two minor issues, while others may present with a dizzying array of issues that practically obscure any flowing energy at all.
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Blocks Blocks as a Projection of the Mind

Our mental processes project into our physical reality in a variety of ways. When our minds imagine that certain actions or states of being are impossible, the first effect is to create a block in the energy body. These blocks exist in limbo between the energetic and the physical. The good news is that these blocks require much less energy to form than a real change in your reality would require. Said another way, its much easier to block yourself mentally and energetically from connecting with the love of your life, than it is to truly create your reality such that true love is impossible. That means that many energy blocks can be cleared permanently through energy and mental work alone. The degree to which the belief or mental block has manifested in your physical reality determines how much mental and physical work will be required to bring your experience into line with your desires and imagination. Ideally, we would fully realize that all blocks are mental and energetic, and therefore wed have instant access to any reality we could imagine. However, we collectively create rules and boundaries in which to exist, so we spend untold energy navigating our imaginary difficulties and obstacles. We commonly experience these imagined difficulties as money, relationship, or health problems. More fundamentally, we experience the world as fixed and immovable with unbreakable physical laws.

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The clearer our energy bodies, the fewer energetic blocks we have, the closer to pure reality we will allow ourselves to experience. The experience of this pure reality, completely free from energetic blocks is called Enlightenment.

Blocks Create Context

One fact about the blocks we create, and therefore the reality we experience, is that those blocks tend to dictate who and what we interact with. We (often unconsciously) create a context in which to exist, and the only things that we perceive in that context are things which are self-consistent with the context. Thats why those who are utterly convinced that money without a job is impossible, will never make money without a job. And why those who are convinced jobs dont bring money, will never be able to keep a lucrative job. And both of those people will be immersed in experiences and company that reinforce and confirm their world view. Deeper, you have probably decided that the laws of physics are more or less absolute. Even if you protest to the contrary, still you sit, pinned by gravity to your seat. You will never experience anything so far outside your reality that it can defy your laws of physics. However, as a modern person, you probably also believe in the
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inevitable march of technology. Nothing can violate physics, but if some member of the priestly class of physicists is sufficiently convinced, and can sufficiently convince his fellow physicists, then physics changes. Then the five elements become atoms, which become subatomic particles. Then instant communication over the span of the globe and even Earth orbit become possible. The belief that some abstract, collective we will figure out rapid advances in our technology is the fundamental difference between our era and previous generations. Technology is just a word that means capability. It means possibility. As modern people we allow and expect technologypossibilityto quickly produce magic, whereas our ancestors in so far as they expected change at all, expected progress to be plodding, which is exactly what it was for them. Magic was perhaps possible, but just not seen by common man. Now we not only have carts that propel themselves, but carts that can also steer themselves. Totems that can read our minds and project our thoughts back to us in the form of a moving mouse cursor across a screen. Trinkets that fit in our ear that can instantly transmit our voice across the globe. This is impossible magic by the standards of our ancestors, those who manifested before us. For us, they are normal. Of course, we also block ourselves from these magical possibilities by imagining things like money, society, class, disease, aging, and the rest. But as modern people, we have faitha fundamental mental process thats generating the certainty that all these issues can also be solved with technology. And so they will be, as our collective consciousness catches up with the mind set of abundance.

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So in our context, well find more people, bound by almost identical physical laws, being pulled inexorably toward possibility. Outside this context weve chosen, there are creatures, laws, and civilizations that we cant perceive, because we have mentally and energetically blocked ourselves to the possibility of their existence. Ill give you a less radical example. The rich rarely interact with the homeless, the happy rarely interact with the depressed, the abundant rarely interact with the limited. These groups arent a large part of each others realities. They can exist in the same larger context, so we as abundant people can imagine a limited person, for example. Prolonged interaction would tend to average those experiences. Put a peaceful person into the context of war, and watch as they become warlike. Put a poor person in the context of wealth and watch as they acclimate to the possibility of wealth, or quickly steer themselves right back into their familiar context of poverty.

Energetic Manifestation of Blocks

At the beginning of this section, I mentioned that energetic blocks manifest in limbo between the energetic and the physical. What I mean is that the blocks take a tangible, nearly physical form, as gunk. When youre interacting with a blocked chakra,
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you may find a goopy, brown substance. Its energy, but its heavy and dark, and it moves very slowly like molasses. Its sticky, so it tends to glom onto the blocked chakra, or onto you as you interact with it. This goop is just one common way an energy block may manifest. Much like the chakras themselves, the nature of the block is metaphorical. For example, goop is not rigid or impenetrable; it just slows the flow of energy down. It just diverts weaker flowing energy into other areas. A person with goop in their heart chakras is not destitute and unable to love; they are just reluctant or not experiencing the joy of connection they crave. Another type of block is like a cobweb of darkness over a glowing chakra; think of a crisscross of dust and cobwebs on the surface of an old Tiffany lamp. The lamps colors and beauty are not entirely blocked, the dust just puts a dingy sheen over them. The webs could easily be cleared, but the flow of energy isnt strong enough in that area to actively clear it, much like a corner in an unused room.
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Goop and cob webs arent structural; theyre just layer on top of whatever structure is there. That means you can probably remove them with just energy work, since they probably havent affected the persons projection into the physical yet. You may notice goop that has become crusty as well, as if the block is hardening. Sometimes its easy to break up, but sometimes it has hardened too long and become rigid. It may harden into something dark and crystalline, and become lodged deep inside the chakra or nadis (energy arteries). These rigid blocks can become very resistant to clearing. First, the blocks are literally just difficult to break and move because they are so concentrated and heavy. But also because when a block is lodged deep and has been there for a long time, the energy that should have been there has already grown around the block, much like a tree growing around a metal fence. When the block finally is removed, there is a hole in the energy, that can and will attract more blocked energy to fill the void. There are several approaches to this issue, but the most common approach is to melt the block slowly, for example as in years of talk therapy in which you mentally process a rape, eventually allowing the possibility of a mentally and physically fulfilling sexual relationship into your reality. Alternatives like directly replacing the block with
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source energy can work, but are extremely jarring and can be physically painful. Quickly processing blocked energy can also cause a process called chemicalization.

Chemicalization
H. Emilie Cady, a spiritual writer in the late 1800s and early 1900s coined the term chemicalization, which is the process of blocked energy manifesting physically when you release it. Fundamentally, a block is stuck energy. For example, we lie to our lover about our true feelings in order to stop a painful truth from manifesting physically in sadness or anger. That blocked truth literally sticks inside our energy body, unexpressed. Its very true that the pain of the truth has been avoidedfor now. When the truth finally does come out it expresses, now with a vengeance, with the built up pain and pressure of the lie itself. Over the course of our lives, as we fail to express our love because were too afraid, as we bottle anger up, as we hide our bottomless sadness, we collect corresponding blocks in our energy bodies. In a perfectly understandable way, we block that energy in because we dont want it to manifest in our lives.

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When the blocks themselves become too painful, and distort our reality too drastically for our well-being, we look for relief. We want to be healed, we go to a physician, a therapist, or an energy healer. And if the healer does her job, our energy can flow again, and express itself boldly and freely. We again experience love, power, and abundance. All that blocked energythat fear, sadness, rage, limitationis now free as well. Some of it can be processed by the healer or with the newer, stronger emotional resources we developed over the years. Some of it, however, has to manifest in our physical reality and be processed in that way. That process of physically manifesting all the blocked energy is called chemicalization. You have your energy cleared and you feel like a million bucks, and the woman of your dreams comes into your life, and your business goes gang busters, but then your mother dies and your business partner embezzles a million dollars from you. Thats chemicalization. The defense against chemicalization is to be aware that its possible, and just keep the faith, so to speak, when it happens. Be careful not to create more blocks as a result of the chemicalization process: just let it flow, and be mindful that what you perceive as bad actually just exists and you choose what meaning to assign to it. I suggest the meaning Yay, proof my energy is clear!

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Color
To summarize the discussion on the Chakra Functions and the Dynamic Pair, the Ka is the context of existence, and the Ba is existence. Ka cannot be said to exist itself, because it is pure motion, pure energy, much like an electron. Pure Ka, or Source, has an essentially infinite frequency. Ba has no frequency because its pure mass, allowing no motion whatsoever. Of course, most of the universe exists in a state somewhere between pure Ka and Ba, expressing both mass and energy. We can measure the Ka and Ba by observing frequencies. The highest frequencies can be understood as white, descending to violet, indigo, blue, green, yellow, orange, red, brown, and finally black. Our bodies are like temples connecting the dynamic pair of feminine and masculine, Ka and Ba. Our crown feeds Ka into our bodies, while our root feeds Ba in. The chakras between are expressions of varying mixes of these energies. Thats why each chakra has a specific and predictable frequency, or color, which corresponds to the rainbow (rainbows are a visual artifact of electromagnetic radiation, which is to say light, which is a fractal of the dynamic pair). If any chakras are the wrong color, then the natural flow of Ka and Ba has been disrupted. Several circumstances can cause this issue. There may be too much Ka coming in from the Crown, or too little Ba from the Root. Or too much Ba
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and not enough Ka. Maybe both sources are in balance but the pathways that allow them to flow between one or more chakras are blocked. You may see a chakra that is too Glowing dark is a difficult sourcey, which concept to explain, but imagine means too much it similar to a black light. Its Ka. It will present glowing, emanating energy, but as very high frethe emanation is dark. Thats quency, or nearly a separate problem from being white. You may see dim; see the Brightness section a chakra glowing next to learn about that. dark which means theres too much Ba. Its also possible for a chakra to be the wrong color entirely, or to have multiple colors mixed together. One client I worked on named Nick had blue intermingled in the yellow of his Solar Plexus. He was the type to wax poetic about all he intended to do with his life and his creativity. The problem was that all that expression from the 5th chakra was getting in the way of the personal power and action from the 3rd chakra. As a side note, Nicks issue wasnt with the Solar Plexus or the Throat directly. The issue was actually that the pathway between his Sacral and his Solar Plexus was blocked because of sexual issues from childhood. That means the Solar Plexus wasnt getting the Ba energy it needed to be fully effective, so the Ka energy was compensating, filling the void left by the 2nd chakra with energy from the 5th chakra.

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Brightness

If the color of a chakra is determined by the frequency, the brightness is determined by its amplitude, or intensity of the energy. Unlike glowing dark, which means there is too much Ba energy, being dim means there is not enough energy of either type feeding into the chakra. This normally means theres a blocked Root or Crown chakra. Its possible to have a dim chakra without a blocked Root or Crown, but that would mean that the pathways to that particular chakra would have to be blocked in both directions . Lindy is an example of the more common scenario. She is a client who was wild and free and fiercely loving, but who was disconnected from Ba energy. She had developed beliefs in her childhood related to her powerless mother and her overbearing father that power and love could not coexist. Her Solar Plexus wasnt getting the Ba energy it needed because of the Root issue, and her abundant Ka couldnt compensate because of a block between the Solar Plexus and her Heart. As a result, her Solar Plexus was dim, and she was floundering through life, buffeted by the winds of chance. Make a chakra bright again by unblocking the Root or Crown, and clearing the pathways before it and after it.

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Spinning
Cyclones form and spin when the hot air from a warm ocean travels upward at the same time the colder, low pressure air falls downward. These twin forces can cause a chain reaction that sucks more hot air upward and more cold air downward, escalating the size and strength of the cyclone into a tropical storm or hurricane. The chakras work exactly the same way. As the denser, hotter Ba energy travels upward past the lighter, lower pressure energy of the Ka, the energy of the chakra spins. Said another way, healthy chakras spin because the dynamic energy of Ka and Ba coexist within them. The speed of the spin depends on the strength of the flow of energy. If both Ka and Ba flow through you freely and strongly, your chakras will spin fast. If an otherwise bright chakra is either not spinning or is spinning too slowly, then the dynamic pair is out of balance.
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Most of the time, if you see a spinning issue there will also be a color issue, because if either Ka or Ba is not flowing the way it should, normally the frequency will also be off kilter. Occasionally you may find a bright, correctly colored chakra that doesnt spin like it should. That is an indication that either the person is changing the frequency of Ka or Ba energy through force of will (possible but draining), or that the main conduit of energy is blocked, but its being compensated by a secondary channel. You might think of the energy system as having a circulatory system in which main arteries run between the chakras, and secondary arteries also flow to the same places, but more slowly.

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Maintaining Clean Energy

Eat Healthy Food and Exercise Regularly
A useful metaphor for energy is water. Think of yourself as a river, which starts with an underground spring, and ends in an ocean somewhere far away. Flowing water tends to stay clean, whereas stagnant water becomes fetid and poisonous. The ocean has the resources to process all that contamination, but you as a smaller body of water do not, so its best to allow the water to flow right through you and back into the source where it can be renewed.

Consider that a river can be wide and straight, allowing the water to flow strongly, and remain clean. It can also flow weakly, or become dammed, or wind haphazardly. Remember from the How the Bodies Interact section that a strong and healthy physical body is essential to the mental and energy bodies. A prerequisite for maintaining clean energy is keeping your body healthy. That means eating health food and exercising regularly. Healthy food makes the flow of water strong and steady. Exercise make the banks of the river straight and wide.
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Great Back Posture

One way to practice great back posture is through the Lotus position. The only particularly special thing about the lotus position is that it allows energy to recirculate more freely up the spine. A proper lotus position will curve the lower part of your spine, so both your butt and chest are sticking out. That curvature allows energy to flow up and down the spinal column more freely than other positions. As of this writing I dont know why that is exactly, but it follows from the river analogy: make your river wide and straight. Helen Sherlock is pictured above. Shes not in the Lotus position, but her back is arched as though it is. Be mindful as you sit and lay down of the posture of your spine, and occasionally readjust to bend your spine as though youre in the full lotus.

Meditation
This is far ranging subject, but all I mean here is the practice of relaxing. Take time to block the anxieties and stressors of daily life and just exist in your body, in a state of total mental and physical relaxation. As our body twists and contorts in response to stress, our energy pathways become twisted and pinched as well. At first we wont
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notice the changes, but over time they can form into energy blocks. Taking time to just relax and open your body back to flow will help ensure no gunk accumulates undetected as you live your life.

Breathing
Prana is the Sanskrit word for life force energy, just like the Chinese word Qi or Chi. Prana literally translates to English as breath. Breathing not only connects your mind with the direct experience of your body, but it helps your energy flow, instead of remaining stagnant. Simply getting into the habit of taking full, deliberate breaths will improve the energy flow in your body. When we are fully relaxed, as in deep sleep, our breath is slow and deep. When we are in the height of ecstasy, as in orgasm, our breath is fast and deep. Your autonomic nervous system knows best: youre happier when you breathe deeply.

Ujjayi Breath
Pronounced OO-jai-ee, meaning ocean, this basic breathing technique is taught in yoga. This controlled breathing helps calm your mind from rushing in all direction, and focuses it strongly on the direct experience of existing in your body. The physiological and psychological benefits of being present in your body could fill entire books, but include: clear thought, stable mood, low blood pressure, resistance to addiction, and access to deep intuition.
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Inhale and exhale through your nose. Youll count to four slowly, three times. First inhale slowly, using your diaphragm to fill your belly as you count to four. Then hold your breath for the count of four. Then exhale completely for a count of four. When you breathe out, make an ocean or rushing noise by constricting your throat as the air passes through, almost like youre gently clearing your throat.

Heart Breathing
Heart Breathing is a technique that allows your body and mind to calm down into a centered state, even in a high stress situation. Close your eyes, and put your hand over your heart, rubbing it in slow, circular motions. Slow your breathing to a 4-4-4 count just like Ujjayi timing. When you inhale, visualize your breath entering your heart instead of your lungs. You can continue your heart breathing for as long as you want to, but do it for at least two minutes. When you finish, you will feel calm, warm, and ready to think and feel clearly.

Ball Breathing
This is a term I first heard in the context of David Deidas book Way of the Superior Man. The book is targeted at men, but woman can use the technique just as easily. Ball breathing allows you to recirculate the energy of passion, fire, and creativity out of your genitalia and back through your body. That way you can express that fire in more robust and productive ways than a simple orgasm. It can also even out your temper if youre feeling frustrated or blocked, for example in a traffic jam.
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Much like Heart Breathing, you will direct your slow, deliberate breaths, this time deep into your abdomen, down into your balls, or for women, to your vagina. When you breathe in, you should feel a physiological sensation of the muscles in your pelvis releasing and relaxing. As you push the breath slowly up, feel the pent-up tension traveling upward into your chest, your throat, and your head, eventually falling back down in a cycle that feels almost like rain inside your body. All the same passionate energy is still present, but its spread out among all your faculties, including your heart, intellect, and intuition.

Yoga
The physical yoga that we in the West recognize as yoga is a tremendous tool for maintaining a clean energy body. Even at its most basic level, yoga combines exercise, meditation, and mindful breathing, which are the bedrocks of a clean energy body. More advanced practice will only expand and harden that core energy strength. There are yoga classes targeted at every skill level and they are available for everything from a barter or donation, to an inexpensive monthly gym membership, to expen73

sive individual classes. Theres no excuse not to start taking care of your body!

Chakra Spinning
Spinning your chakras is a technique I first learned from intuitive counselor Erin Pavlina. Spinning is a way of reinvigorating your energy body, and making it flow more brightly and strongly. It also helps you to remain mindful of the state of your own energy body because if you try to spin and there is an issue, you will notice it early, before it becomes a structural issue. Lay down flat somewhere comfortable like a bed or a large couch. Imagine a pole running through your body from head to toe, running directly down the middle. Now visualize a red or brown glowing orb of light where your root chakra is, near your perineum, and centered on the pole you imagined. Now visualize the red orb spinning, with a galaxy or hurricane of colored energy rotating around the pole. Visualize the root spinning freely, and quickly. See the energy as bright and strong, with vivid colors. Perhaps hear the hum of the low frequency of the red or brown energy. When youre satisfied with the strength of the spinning Root chakra, move on to the Sacral chakra and repeat the exercise. Do this for each chakra in turn, eventually reaching the Crown. At the end, you should have spun and energized all seven of your major chakras, and you will experience a sense of balance and wellbeing.
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Final Thoughts
Congratulations! Learning the nature and structure of the energy anatomy is the foundation of a healthy energetic life and a strong start down the path of an energy worker. Many questions remain: How do you perceive the energy body? How do you move energy? Where should you move it once you know how? Excellent questions for a more advanced workshop or perhaps book. Before you learn more about energy work, I want to share some parting advice and thoughts from my experience as a student and healer. Energy work is a subtle practice, but a profoundly powerful one. Skilled practitioners can stop illness, ease stress, and ignite passion. But as with any powerful tool, energy work can be abused to hurt and manipulate people. The power to de-stress is also the power to distress. For example, transference is the unconscious redirection of feelings from one person to another, and its well-known in the psychotherapy community. When dealing with clients energy blocks, theres a powerful tendency to transfer feelings of deep well-being and love to the healer. That makes clients especially vulnerable to an unscrupulous practitioner. Thats why students must be sure they are mentally prepared for the responsibility that the power to heal brings. Thats why teachers must teach boundaries and ethics along with theory and technique.
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Even with the highest intentions and the most rigid ethics, healers must still be cautious. As with other facets of life, healing can be a mirror; aspiring healers often start down this path because they themselves crave healing. I honor that reality, and I think healing others is a powerful and rightminded approach to self-healing. However, those new to energy work must be especially careful not to project their own pain onto those they treat. That means being careful not to accidentally see your own energy blocks within others. It also means not spreading your own energetic blocks and difficulties to others. The problem is that the deepest blocks we harbor are often invisible to us. Thats why its important to follow a cleansing routine and maintain strong professional boundaries while performing energy work. Students without clients need to remain mindful also. I admonish every person who chooses this path to also cultivate healthy skepticism. Take nothing you hear or read as gospel, and verify everything through your own experience, including everything in this book. Especially be skeptical of yourself: use the information you have to hold your beliefs strongly, but as you gather new insight, eject out-dated beliefs just as strongly from your mind. The rationalist phrase for this is Strong belief, weakly held. That phrase is especially relevant in a field with so much conflicting information, one thats rife with opportunists and overly optimistic peddlers of all things New Age. Maintain an open heart, but wield your mind powerfully as well. Finally, the path of the healer is the path of healing. Any physical therapist will tell you that regaining motion in your
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body requires effort, perseverance, and pain. Breaking up scar tissue out of your knee as you bend it and flex your leg is excruciating. Expelling childhood trauma, fear, guilt, and powerlessness is no less harrowing. You might live your entire life without brushing against these dark forces within you, unaware of the light and love that you failed to embrace, none the wiser to the spectacular life you failed to grasp. Unlike physical therapy, however, you can only heal others to the degree that you have healed. You cannot rightly perceive a block that you share with a client, and you cannot hope to clear a block in others that you are unable to clear for yourself. Thats why the path of the healer is the path of healing. Its a path littered with riches if you choose to follow it. Its also a painful and tedious path. When you think youve reached the summit, youll just the next mountain, looming large ahead. So as you travel, always hold close to the fire you feel when your work elevates your life and your clients lives. Stay connected to the daily reality of your love and your work, because while some times will be good, other times will be challenging. Its easy to lose yourself in the darkness of your own pain as you plumb its depth, and its easy to be blinded by ego as you climb back out. Cultivate your capacity for infinite love and patience. Let your gratitude blossom every day. Keep your mind sharp. And let your light shine brightly from within. The journey is long, but its worth every step. Light and Love,

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Further Reading
Read more about energy work, healing, personal empowerment, and self improvement, please visit my website, which I update about twice a week with a new essay.

www.PeterMichaud.com
(click to visit right now!)

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